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lol, no wonder why Take 2 refused to buy Duke's IP or offer funding for it. They are going to end up getting it for nothing.

Take-Two sues over Duke Forever non-completion
by Cyril Kowaliski — 6:00 AM on May 15, 2009
Things are just going from bad to worse for 3D Realms and its former staffers. After shutting down last week because of insufficient funding, the former games studio is now the subject of a lawsuit by would-be Duke Nukem Forever publisher Take-Two Interactive. As Shacknews reports, Take-Two claims 3D Realms has breached a contract by failing to deliver the game:

"Apogee [a.k.a. 3D Realms] continually delayed the completion date for the Duke Nukem Forever," says Take-Two in the complaint, according to Bloomberg. "Apogee repeatedly assured Take-Two and the video-gaming community that it was diligently working toward competing development of the PC Version of the Duke Nukem Forever." According to Take-Two, the company paid $12 million to 3D Realms for the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever in 2000. A second, unspecified agreement was struck between the two companies in 2007.

While 3D Realms no longer exists, Shacknews points out that a publishing spin-off dubbed Apogee Software, LLC (not to be confused with Apogee Software, Ltd, which was 3D Realms' legal name) remains in operation. Apogee LLC got tongues wagging last week by promising an imminent Duke Nukem-related announcement, but as it turned out, that announcement had nothing to do with Duke Forever. In any case, Take-Two might not want to count on a multi-million-dollar settlement.

lol, no wonder why Take 2 refused to buy Duke's IP or offer funding for it. They are going to end up getting it for nothing.

Heh... The thing is that them doing that successfully may remain to be seen. The play they seem to be making explains the lack of ponying up $5 mil and demanding $30 mil for publishing rights for something they didn't fund, bought the rights off of another publisher for $12 mil... The big problem with them succeeding in this play would be that the Court may have trouble buying the line when it comes to light that they did this play the way they did. Seriously.

This gets weirder and weirder as it plays out. "As the Stomach Turns"...

But, does this mean all the Apogee games are now free and up for grabs???

No. The rights to the back catalog belongs to the newly reformed Apogee, LLC that's related to, but not the same entity as the original, which renamed itself to 3DRealms. When they formed the company, they spun off the rights to them, with the ability to continue to produce DNF, etc.

Moreover, 3DRealms hasn't done anything official other than close down daily operations as a publisher and a studio. Moreover, they've not dissolved the company fully yet. Until it's sold off or dissolved, even if they didn't hand rights control, via contract, to a sister company- they stay with the company.

No. The rights to the back catalog belongs to the newly reformed Apogee, LLC that's related to, but not the same entity as the original, which renamed itself to 3DRealms. When they formed the company, they spun off the rights to them, with the ability to continue to produce DNF, etc.

Moreover, 3DRealms hasn't done anything official other than close down daily operations as a publisher and a studio. Moreover, they've not dissolved the company fully yet. Until it's sold off or dissolved, even if they didn't hand rights control, via contract, to a sister company- they stay with the company.

ughhh all this publishing mumbo jumbo. How do you manage to handle it all

ughhh all this publishing mumbo jumbo. How do you manage to handle it all

I'm not quite sure sometimes... It's a twisted world, to say the least. It gets even more entertaining when you start talking "Patents". I've gotten my fair share of more than most people could stomach of that having filed one myself.

No. The rights to the back catalog belongs to the newly reformed Apogee, LLC that's related to, but not the same entity as the original, which renamed itself to 3DRealms. When they formed the company, they spun off the rights to them, with the ability to continue to produce DNF, etc.

Moreover, 3DRealms hasn't done anything official other than close down daily operations as a publisher and a studio. Moreover, they've not dissolved the company fully yet. Until it's sold off or dissolved, even if they didn't hand rights control, via contract, to a sister company- they stay with the company.

So when are they going to be fully dissolved/sold off. I'd love to buy the rights to Rise of the Triad or Shadow Warrior.